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Lawsuit Over Synagogue Donation Settled

A lawsuit brought against a now-defunct suburban synagogue over use of donated money was recently settled out of court.

In March of last year, the Exponent reported that a Conshohocken man, Dale Sattar, was suing Suburban Jewish Community Center-B’nai Aaron over a $100,000 donation he’d made to the synagogue a decade earlier to honor his mother’s memory.

Sattar, then 75, a retired engineer born in Iran, insisted that as part of the agreement, if the synagogue, which closed down in 2011, did not meet all of his stipulations, it was required to donate the money to a charity, Boys Town Jerusalem Foundation of America.

Those stipulations had not been met, he said, before B’nai Aaron shut its doors and Adath Israel took over most of its remaining assets.

Sattar filed a lawsuit after synagogue officials were refusing to send the money to Boys Town, the American arm of an Israeli charity that helps educate disadvantaged youth.

Sattar made it clear that he was not seeking the money back, only that all terms of the agreement be met.

Both parties have confirmed they reached an agreement but as part of the terms, declined to give details.

Allen M. Mandelbaum, the Montgomery County attorney who represented B’nai Aaron, released a statement in November, saying: “Suburban Jewish Community Center-B’nai Aaron, Temple Adath Israel of the Main Line, and Mr. Dale Sattar have reached an amicable resolution of their differences and all litigation involving their differences has been concluded to their mutual satisfaction.”